Children,
Ancillary Relief and Property Law
Mike Horton undertakes
all aspects of family related work. He
has a particular interest in ancillary relief and
family property.
His ancillary relief
practice is wide and varied, ranging from big
money cases to transfer of tenancy claims.
He is familiar with cases involving family
companies, discretionary trusts, pension sharing,
bankruptcy issues avoidance of disposition orders
and Barder appeals. He has particular
experience of cases involving third party "intervenor"
property claims in ancillary relief proceedings.
He also acts in claims for
financial provision for children under Schedule 1
to the Children Act 1989 (including claims made by
young adults against their parents) and has
extensive experience of claims under the
Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants)
Act 1975 in both the family courts and the
Chancery Division. He also advises in
relation to pre-nuptial agreements. He
continues to undertake publicly funded ancillary
relief work.
He also has an extensive
practice in
property disputes between cohabitants and other
family members under s14 of the Trusts of Land and
Appointment of Trustees Act 1996. His
property law practice has included a successful
claim against the executors of an estate for
ownership of property by virtue of proprietary estoppel, drug confiscation proceedings in the
Court of Appeal on a property law point as well as
a claim to an interest in a holiday home in Spain. His
experience also extends to cases of undue
influence.
He has also acted for local
authorities and the Official Solicitor in
declaration proceedings in respect of mentally
incapacitated adults.
He has extensive experience
of injunctions and of divorce proceedings
including defended divorces and stays under
Brussels IIA and the 1973 Act.
He advises in cases of
alleged professional negligence in his areas of
expertise.
His
children practice includes acting for local
authorities, parents and children in adoption, care
and placement proceedings. He acts for both
parents and children in private law proceedings.
He also has experience of child abduction work,
both under Brussels IIA and the Hague Convention.
He has written extensively
on family law matters. He is author of Family Homes
and Domestic Violence: The New Legislation (FT
Law & Tax 1996) and co-authored Residence
and Contact: A Practical Guide (FT Law & Tax
1996) and Child
Support: A Practitioner’s Guide (FT Law
& Tax 1996). He lectures on a wide variety
of family law topics including financial provision
for children, domestic violence injunctions
(including the recent introduction of s42A Family
Law Act 1996),
property rights of cohabitants, the interaction
between bankruptcy and family law and the Civil
Partnership Act 2004.
In 1997, Mike took a sabbatical to work in
South Africa as a
research adviser on family law matters to the Deputy
Minister of Justice, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
He undertakes pro bono work
in family cases through the Bar Pro Bono Unit.
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